I am a PhD student in the department of psychiatry at the Amsterdam UMC under the supervision of Prof. dr. Karin Verweij, dr. Jorien Treur and dr. Abdel Abdellaoui. My background is on biomedical sciences, philosophy of science and neuroscience. My interest lies on gaining biological knowledge that will be translatable to clinical practice and to make such knowledge a common effort between the parts involved. Among several topics, the research projects during my academic formation have included studying the role of serotonin in the brain, performing large cohort studies to study the comorbidity between alcohol use and mental illness and analysing the role of pain perception as a homeostatic factor. My PhD deepens on these topics by exploring the causal relationship between smoking and mental illness from a genetic perspective. I intend to refine the genetic signal of tobacco smoking in order to have a robust genetic instrument to be used in causality studies. Additionally, my research involves collaborating with organizations in The Netherlands that will share their knowledge on the topics and benefit from the research.